It has been just over six months since my family and I
picked up and headed westward to Los Angeles to be a part of Mosaic’s “Protégé
Program.” There is a lot of buzz about Mosaic. As I travel around, some people
get pretty jazzed when I tell them what church I am a part of. Others, however,
give me the scarlet letter treatment. For better or worse, a lot of people are
interested in what Mosaic is doing and what they’re all about. So I thought it
might be of interest to share some of the things I’ve found in my first six
months of serving at one of America’s most influential churches:
Mosaic is just a
church.
Although this may sound like a negative statement, it’s
really not meant to be. Before moving out here, I had been following Mosaic for
some time. I believe it was roughly 6 years ago that I heard Erwin speak for
the first time at the Willow Creek Leadership Summit. His message on the
Barbarian Way forever changed the trajectory of my life. I would follow Mosaic
from a distance for the next several years. Tuning into the podcasts, reading Erwin’s
books and articles, Mosaic felt like a home away from home. I found myself
captivated by the visions for life and church that I heard cast through the mp4
airwaves and I tried my best to replicate those visions in my own ministry
contexts.
When I caught wind of the protégé program, everything in me
wanted to be a part of it, but being locked in a mortgage and ministry context
of my own, I just didn’t think I’d get the chance. As fate would have it,
however, I got my chance just a couple years later. So six months ago, my wife
and I pulled up stakes, packed up our stuff, and left friends and family to
move half way across the country to serve and learn at Mosaic.
To my initial disappointment, however, I learned pretty fast
that Mosaic is just a church. I’m not sure what I expected, but whatever it
was, it wasn’t realistic. Mosaic is a church. It is an extraordinary church.
But it is still just a church. It is filled with imperfect people trying to
serve God the best they know how. It is led by imperfect leaders who probably occasionally
struggle with mixed agendas, pride, and a culture of cool. They don’t have it
all figured out. In fact, there is quite a lot that they don’t have figured out.
They try some stuff that doesn’t work. Other things they try probably shouldn’t
work, but they do. Coming to this realization has really been a good thing for me because it grounds me as I look to the future and potentially church planting. I fear that had I not come here, I would have always had unrealistic expectations of myself and others based on my perception of Mosaic.
Erwin is the real deal.
Erwin remains one of the most extraordinary people I have
ever met. Although he sometimes gets a
hard time for being introverted,
opinionated and somewhat intimidating, if you ask me, he is still one of the most
compelling human beings I have ever known. The guy is legit. Being on the
inside of Mosaic allows me to continually hear stories about Erwin. Some of
them are the epic types everyone gets to hear on the podcasts. But many are the
kinds of stories that happen behind the scenes in the week to week stuff every
church leader has to deal with and few people ever hear about. I am continually
amazed at the kind of wisdom, courage and character Erwin displays in the
seemingly insignificant moments of every day leadership. Which leads me to my
next point…
Never Underestimate
the Impact a Single Person Can Make
One of the things I have always insisted on believing about
Mosaic was that unlike most churches with
celebrity pastors, this one wasn’t
built on a personality. That is mostly true. Mosaic wasn’t built on Erwin’s
personality. But Mosaic was most certainly built on Erwin’s leadership. Erwin
is at the center of everything that really thrives at Mosaic. In fact, they
have tried starting gatherings where Erwin doesn’t teach (I currently serve at
one) and they just haven’t been successful at getting them off the ground. They
found just a year or two ago that Erwin doesn’t preach, attendance drops by
60%! I think Erwin wishes this wasn’t the case and he has told me that he
dreams of the day when his communication gifts are no longer needed on Sunday,
when the gifts of others are more needed than his own and his involvement at
gatherings is maybe 10%. If you ask me, however, that day isn’t anywhere in
sight. Although Erwin spends a large portion of his time traveling and speaking
now, he is still the primary leader, communicator, vision caster and (for lack
of a better word) “draw” at Mosaic. If he were to step away from Mosaic
tomorrow, I’m not sure the church could survive. At the very least, they’d have
to make some BIG changes.
Specialists vs Work
Horses
I have always had a hard time with the tendency of mega
churches to move towards ridiculous specialization. You know, when they have
people on full-time staff with job titles like “Assistant Name Card Organizer
for the Children’s 3:15 Service.” I mean, really? Mosaic, however, finds itself
on the other side of the spectrum. Mosaic staff all do a little bit of
everything. A number of them step in and help out wherever is needed all the
time. Sometimes this just means running powerpoint for an experimental worship
gathering. But other times it means taking over leadership of the Mosaic
Alliance for all of North America. There is a sense of fluidity that I love. On
the negative side, Mosaic staff often do so much that sometimes it seems that
really important things only get “pet project” status. Some balls just end up
getting dropped. But by and large, I am completely blown away by all that the
staff are able to juggle and make happen. And one of the things I love about
the culture at Mosaic is that they are always asking their leaders, “Do you
still want to do this? Is this something you are still passionate about? Or
should we hand it off to someone else to free you to do what you love?” I love
that.
Excelling at the
Other Things
The ironic thing about Mosaic is that the things it
generally does poorly are the same things that 90% of churches already do well.
However, the things that Mosaic does really well 90% of churches don’t do well.
This is one of the things that makes Mosaic such a great place to learn and serve.
Empowering People
One example: Mosaic is an empowering place. Whereas most
churches seek to manage and control people, Mosaic seeks to unleash them. This
is one of the things I have most appreciated about Mosaic over the years. They
value the unique passions, giftedness, calling and contribution of each person.
Whereas many churches might give lip service to this, Mosaic actually fleshes
it out. When someone wants to come on volunteer staff, one of the first
conversations is about helping them identify how God has uniquely created them
– their interests, desires, passions, etc – and then encouraging them to use
and develop them in chasing after God’s unique call on their life. Sometimes
this results in the starting of new nonprofits, sometimes in results in sending
people to existing organizations, sometimes it means them getting involved in
stuff going on at Mosaic, and sometimes it means eventually losing some of
their best people to start new churches or to go overseas. There have been
years when Mosaic has averaged the commissioning and sending of three people or
couples overseas per month! That is 36 full time missionaries a year! What
Mosaic doesn’t do is begin the
conversation with its own needs. What they don’t do is make a laundry list of
positions they need filled. What they don’t do is try to force round pegs to
fit in square holes to cover their own butt. That is called manipulation. And
it is more about oiling the machine than serving people. I can’t tell you how
much I love this about Mosaic.
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